Monday, October 29, 2012

Chicken Noodle Trash Soup

I have this bad habit of buying lots of vegetables and then never using them. Or worse yet, just eating them separately, kind of like a toddler. So I’m always on the lookout for recipes that can incorporate a lot of whatever I have in the fridge and aren’t stir fry.

Well last week I had some chicken broth, chicken and a bunch of random veggies and after a quick google search I realized, duh: Chicken Noddle Soup! And guess what? Soup is really easy to make (I’m probably late to the game here).

So here’s more of an outline than a recipe of what I made (and to be honest, more for my own personal use since I apparently never think to make soup). My friends always call these soup recipes Trash Soup, because you’re basically throwing in all the things in your fridge you need to use up. There was no actual trash involved here (I probably didn’t need to explain this…)

Ingredients

6 cups broth

2 chicken breasts (cooked & chopped)

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup snap peas (sliced diagonally)

1 cup corn

{substitute/add: any veggies you have lying around, chopped or sliced into smaller pieces}

1 1/2 cups egg noodles

2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

{substitute/add: desired seasoning}

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1. Cook noodles until just done. Rinse, drain, set aside.

2. In a large pot, add a tiny bit of olive oil. Turn heat to medium. Throw in garlic and sauté for a minute or two.

3. Add broth and all seasoning ingredients to the pot. Stir. Bring to a boil.

4. Add in vegetables in order of required cook time (ie. carrots would go in first, wait a couple minutes, add snap peas, wait a couple more minutes, add corn). Reduce heat cover and simmer for 15 minutes from the time you put the first veggies in.

5. In a bowl, mix cornstarch and water together, dissolving the cornstarch completely. Slowly add the mixture to the soup, stirring constantly.

6. Stir in chicken and noodles. Heat through.

Yields 6 servings

Again, this is pretty adaptable to what you’ve got on hand and you probably already realize that you can make almost any ingredients into soup or stew. But I’m telling you, it’s like a light went off for me!

Haha, these are all valid questions! Cornstarch to thicken it a bit, broth because without it the soup would be chicken and veggies in water (& I'm waay too lazy to make my own broth), and unfortunately I did not have the "traditional" chicken noodle soup veggies... just the ones in my fridge I needed to get rid of. :)